To My Chagrin

Summary:

Notes:

Work Text:

Asami's pack was light and quiet against her back, emptied of the gears, the sparking gloves, the miscellany she had learned to carry in these past years. She'd allowed herself three slim tools for the trip, and she hoped, as she gazed up at the shimmer-twist of the portal, that they would suffice.

At the edge of the crater, she paused to take it in. Korra halted and a breeze circled around them, cool and sweet. "You okay?" Korra asked.

"Bright," Asami replied, smiling. "It's hard for me to wrap my mind around a whole other world, even after all of this." They resumed walking, and the breeze circled around her ankles, tracing up her arm. Her hair ruffled, and she looked at Korra again.

"You'll love it there," Korra said. "I promise."

Asami turned her palm over, and Korra reached out. Their hands brushed against each other, then clasped. Asami took a deep breath, and the light of the portal rippled around them as they stepped through.

She caught Korra's other hand, and Korra leaned forward, and when they kissed, the world faded into gold around them.

*

Korra was rummaging through her wardrobe for her old pro-bending helmet. (One of the twins had issued Bolin a challenge that apparently could. Not. Stand.) Asami sprawled across Korra's bedroll, flipping through yesterday's newspaper. "Did you ever see something called a 'bear' in the Avatar state?"

"Like a skunk bear?" Korra asked. "Aha!" She pulled her helmet out and polished the faceplate.

"No, just a bear. Apparently it's a kind of pet Earth Kingdom royalty used to have."

Korra shrugged. "I guess we could ask Wu about it."

"Maybe," Asami said. She turned the page of the newspaper, but it slipped out of her hands, drifting to the floor. Asami flipped over to catch it, but as she reached for it, her gaze fell upon a small wooden box, inlaid with metal. "What's this?" Asami held up the box, tracing the ornate carving across its lid.

"Er," Korra said. Asami looked up and found Korra fiddling with the strap of her helmet, blushing.

Asami sat up, drawing her hands back carefully. "You don't have to--"

"No," Korra said. "It's all right." In a few steps, she had settled on the bedroll next to Asami. "I just feel silly about it."

Asami picked the box up, tracing the grooves in the metal. "Did you etch this?" The pattern curved around and into and through itself.

"It's metal-bending," Korra said. She traced the irregular ridges of the pattern herself, letting her hand brush, then settle, over Asami's. "Su wanted me to work on precision."

"Hi, Korra." Zhu Li smiled, then tapped against the open panel. "What if we added a system redundancy?"

"Maybe," Asami murmured. She moved aside a wrist-thick cable and tried to picture its relocation. "Korra, can you grab that wrench?" Korra paused by the work bench to retrieve it, twirling it in her hands before handing it to Zhu Li. Asami pecked Korra on the cheek before sliding her arm over her hips. "Thanks."

Using the wrench, Zhu Li unfastened another panel. "If we use platinum to encase the secondary wiring here, the mechanisms for flight wouldn't need to shift."

"We could customize," Asami said. "If they worked primarily underwater, we wouldn't need as much coolant."

"Only if they were staying in the same place for a while," Korra interjected. "They'd still run pretty hot if they had to swim quickly, even underwater."

"Hm," Asami replied.

"Well," Zhu Li responded.

Korra looked at Asami, then Zhu Li, then Asami again. "You want me to do some water bending, don't you?"

Zhu Li laughed. "Maybe this afternoon." She glanced out the workshop windows. "Varrick should be done with his pedicure by now." As she started resetting the tools, Korra turned to Asami and attempted (adorably) to flutter her eyelashes.

Asami straightened her tunic as she crossed the courtyard. She turned the corner and found Korra spinning, dancing through the gates, her eyes closed and her hair flowing loose. Korra's feet shifted, tapped, slid, and lifted off the ground as she cartwheeled, drifted to land in front of Asami.

Korra opened her eyes, and Asami remembered to breathe. She reached up and caught a lock of Korra's hair between her fingers. Tugged.